I still love the long roofs!
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| The Parklane provided the glamour to go against the Chevy Nomad. |
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| This is my favorite wagon advertisement picture. It captures the idea of family fun. |
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| The Flex carries some of that early day vibe in a modern package. |
Our two best cars are a little past their prime, but are still in fairly reasonable shape. They can both be brought to their best states.
The truck has always been fine for just my Wife and myself, but even an occasional third passenger makes things quite uncomfortable.
With both Mustangs things can be a bit crowded with a back seat passenger, although the somewhat larger '07 was used as a family car when the kids were smaller, they ain't smaller anymore!
My Wife likes to entertain herself working on little projects while we drive.
She likes to have a little room around her, as well as being able to reach behind her into the rear seat area to gain access to her crafting supplies. A backseat passenger behind her in either Mustang results in a cramped environment, too cramped to craft.
We also wanted a vehicle that could occasionally hold our kids and their partners while on a vacation trip. Or just a trip to go out and have a meal together.
I didn't have any interest in getting a sedan, while the four doors would be useful, they are limited in their capacity. I also didn't want a small SUV, I wanted the flexibility of a larger SUV or even a minivan (?!).
Well, maybe not another minivan.
I also wanted to find a vehicle that could return better gas mileage than my old Explorer or my F150.
That excluded most full sized, truck based SUVs, such as Tahoes, Expeditions, Dodge Durangos and the like.
There is a trade off between capacity and economy. You can't have both, trade offs need to be made. The luxury of having a little more always exacts a cost.
Last year we rented a new Dodge Grand Caravan for our family trip to the Oregon coast. It was very comfortable, held all our gear, and returned satisfactory fuel economy in the low to mid twenties. I know those numbers are nothing to get excited about, but they are higher than other large SUVs and even midsize models such as the old Explorer.
Minivans are very spacious and configurable, especially with the "stow and go" type systems. Usually all three rows of seats are quite comfortable. Three row SUVs can vary quite a bit in regards to their third row spaciousness.
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| This is a 2021 GMC Yukon Denali XL. To quote from an old Cadillac ad, it is "For those whose choice is unrestricted." This is how you roll, when you can pay the toll! |
The pictured Denali is the more demure brother of the Cadillac Escalade, it's two feet longer than a Flex! Like the Ford Expedition, it is one of the the biggest three row SUVs.
Besides that, there are questions of true all season or off roading capabilities. Most of these vehicles are available with at least AWD capabilities, the larger SUVs with real 4WD drive. While few owners take their large, expensive SUVs on actual off road trails, they are usually appreciated in snow and inclement weather conditions. Light duty AWD systems are appreciated by many.
My needs are more limited, weather conditions in my area are usually mild, and my preferences of travel is outside of snowy seasons. FWD is the default base system with most car based CUVs, It is usually adequate in light snow.
I was looking for the lightest and simplest system of the engine and drivetrain. FWD would suffice and I did not want the added complexity of turbocharging.
I had even considered an '08 through 2010 Explorer. I prefer the truck like style and personality of these SUVs, but not their fuel economy. It also would be very difficult to locate a low mileage example of an 11 year old vehicle.
We also did not want to buy another older, high mileage vehicle, my Wife was quite clear about that. That's all that I've been buying for years. They are much cheaper than newer cars, but their trouble free early life has long been passed.
We had been driving my BIL's 2018 BMW 2 series coupe. It was going to returned after the three year lease and had accumulated 33,000 miles. It felt and still even smelled like a new car. A feeling that I hadn't experienced since 2007, when we bought our last new vehicles. My Wife told me that if we were going to buy another used car, it would have to be a low mileage example. That was an offer that I had no intention of refusing!
I knew that she was right, we needed a car that was still in the bloom of youth, and could deliver the kind of carefree driving we have been missing.
This is not to say that a newer car can't break down, my truck seized the a/c compressor and had to be towed home from Santa Maria. Of course it was just out of warranty.
The incident with my Explorer took place at a very bad time.
There were some additional complications. Due to Covid, we were not allowed to ride with the tow driver. We had to make our own arrangements to travel the remaining fifty miles to our destination.
Rental cars are at a premium, and there were none available for the next couple of days. This has been a real change from what we had been used to, and the prices were much higher!
The personal circumstances were also different in this situation, as this trip was being made to deal with a family emergency. This meant that I couldn't just focus on my car situation, it had to be handled delicately.
By Saturday we were able to secure a rental car from the Ontario airport. It would be a one day rental that would have to be returned the next morning.
I had a six hour drive ahead of me to look forward to. Luckily we secured a car that made the trip more enjoyable.
I still had to return to Riverside to deal with the disposal of the Explorer. We still had some family business to deal with, so we would be returning the next week.
We thought that it might be better to buy a newer car now, since the rental picture did not look so rosy. I had been checking on CL for possible candidates.
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| The Fairlane show car was very close to the production Flex, but those nifty suicide doors wouldn't make it! |
I had been attracted to the Flex since it debuted. It's an interesting design that blends elements of a truck, a van, and an old school Ford station wagon. I'd gone to see them in 2008 and was impressed by the design. The styling was clearly retro, it was based on the Fairlane show car. Retro was in at the time, Ford had another earlier show car named the Ford Forty Nine, which reflected some of the styling design of the post war '49 Ford "shoebox."
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| You can see some of the influence that this car had on the front styling of the Flex. |
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| The smooth, straight body side design also clearly influenced the Flex. |
The Ford two seat Thunderbird was also a retro design that was also put into production. Even the hugely popular 2005 Mustang was clearly a retro design, though it was quite well received. I even bought one!
On one of my forays to Wheels and Deals I had encountered a Lincoln MK T. I have been impressed by the interiors of the new Lincoln models, but they are well out of my price range. So I started to look at earlier models to see when the transition to higher quality interior designs occurred. I found that it started with the adoption of the MK nomenclature, so I took look inside the MK T.
I was impressed with the interior design, but the MK T had been poorly received and not many were sold, much less than the Flex, which wasn't a hot seller either. It was difficult to find an example equipped the way that I preferred, with the base V6, the second row bench, the right colors and low mileage. It seems that the only market that readily accepted the Lincoln was the livery trade. I had seen some used examples that were offered for sale that had attained some astronomical mileages.
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| I would have loved to have found a white one. |
While styling is a personal thing, and I liked the "space age," baleen whale look, I have to admit that I find the Flex more attractive. If I could have found the right MK T, I would have bought it, just for the interior!
To make a long story short, my Wife and I went to check out a couple of Flexs (Flexi?) at the local Ford dealer. We found a 2017 CPO with 30,000 miles, base V6 FWD, and a leather interior. Notable features were the Nav system ( yes, I've become spoiled ) and the Sky View multi panel moon roof. Ingot silver with a Shadow black roof, grille bar, and hatch panel. The clincher were the glossy black 20 inch. rollers!
We've already taken one trip to Southern California and I can see that this Flex will be a vehicle that we can enjoy for years.
Here's picture of our actual car, in my mind the Flex is a car, not a cross over or SUV. The addition of the Flex is shaking up the order in my garage. Expect to see some changes.
RE bigs SUVs. I once almost bought a Ford Exaggeration, Expedition but I laid down until the feeling went away. I always say, I prefer small cars, " I like small cars and skinny women."
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